Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:HCVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.
Summary
CVE-2024-49863 is a medium-severity NULL Pointer Dereference (CWE-476) vulnerability in Linux Linux Kernel. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499); ranked at the 21th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SA-15 (Development Process, Standards, and Tools) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2024-43821
Vulnerability Data
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: vhost/scsi: null-ptr-dereference in vhost_scsi_get_req() Since commit 3f8ca2e115e5 ("vhost/scsi: Extract common handling code from control queue handler") a null pointer dereference bug can be triggered when guest sends an SCSI AN…
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request. In vhost_scsi_ctl_handle_vq(), `vc.target` is assigned with `&v_req.tmf.lun[1]` within a switch-case block and is then passed to vhost_scsi_get_req() which extracts `vc->req` and `tpg`. However, for a `VIRTIO_SCSI_T_AN_*` request, tpg is not required, so `vc.target` is set to NULL in this branch. Later, in vhost_scsi_get_req(), `vc->target` is dereferenced without being checked, leading to a null pointer dereference bug. This bug can be triggered from guest. When this bug occurs, the vhost_worker process is killed while holding `vq->mutex` and the corresponding tpg will remain occupied indefinitely. Below is the KASAN report: Oops: general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdffffc0000000000: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN NOPTI KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000000-0x0000000000000007] CPU: 1 PID: 840 Comm: poc Not tainted 6.10.0+ #1 Hardware name: QEMU Ubuntu 24.04 PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014 RIP: 0010:vhost_scsi_get_req+0x165/0x3a0 Code: 00 fc ff df 48 89 fa 48 c1 ea 03 80 3c 02 00 0f 85 2b 02 00 00 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 fc ff df 4d 8b 65 30 4c 89 e2 48 c1 ea 03 <0f> b6 04 02 4c 89 e2 83 e2 07 38 d0 7f 08 84 c0 0f 85 be 01 00 00 RSP: 0018:ffff888017affb50 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: ffff88801b000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: ffff888017affcb8 RBP: ffff888017affb80 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000000 R13: ffff888017affc88 R14: ffff888017affd1c R15: ffff888017993000 FS: 000055556e076500(0000) GS:ffff88806b100000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00000000200027c0 CR3: 0000000010ed0004 CR4: 0000000000370ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? show_regs+0x86/0xa0 ? die_addr+0x4b/0xd0 ? exc_general_protection+0x163/0x260 ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x27/0x30 ? vhost_scsi_get_req+0x165/0x3a0 vhost_scsi_ctl_handle_vq+0x2a4/0xca0 ? __pfx_vhost_scsi_ctl_handle_vq+0x10/0x10 ? __switch_to+0x721/0xeb0 ? __schedule+0xda5/0x5710 ? __kasan_check_write+0x14/0x30 ? _raw_spin_lock+0x82/0xf0 vhost_scsi_ctl_handle_kick+0x52/0x90 vhost_run_work_list+0x134/0x1b0 vhost_task_fn+0x121/0x350 ... </TASK> ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Let's add a check in vhost_scsi_get_req. [whitespace fixes]
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Developer testing and evaluation (including static analysis) directly finds null-dereference bugs before deployment.
Documented development standards and tools can enforce null-safety rules and safe pointer usage.
Engineering principles can mandate defensive coding such as explicit null checks before dereference.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Secure SDLC practices (static analysis, code review, safe coding standards) directly prevent NULL dereference bugs during development.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing can detect NULL dereference defects before release.
Secure SDLC mandates defensive coding practices that can prevent NULL dereferences.
Application security requirements can specify input validation and pointer-safety rules.
Secure architecture principles encourage defensive design that avoids unsafe pointer use.
Secure coding standards directly require NULL-pointer checks and safe dereference patterns.